Doom³

The Good
The atmosphere, graphics, enemies, almost everything!

The Bad
It's way too short.

The Bottom Line
DOOM 3 is the first FPS that I played using a gamepad. And one of the first games that I played using a gamepad, be it a Xbox one or another. In the end, I managed to handle it quite well if bragging is allowed. :)

Before playing on Xbox I've already tried the game on the PC but after 15 minutes of gameplay everything seemed so boring. Switching from a 17" LCD monitor to a TV with a 94 cm plasma display had a great impact on the overall game feeling for me. Even though PC graphics are way better, the game was still looking damn awesome. I immediately liked just about everything regarding graphics and the atmosphere induced by visual themes and effects.

The game is dark and the sound effects keep you under pressure, especially Betruger's continuous taunting. Enemies look and sound horrifying enough, especially if you're taken by surprise and some are really hard to kill while others seem to be too easy. Anyway, they usually show up in multiple waves or just one with a large amount of targets for you to shoot so you shouldn't think lightly about any of the demons around the UAC buildings.

I have played the game on medium difficulty (the first sentence in this review states as to why I did this) and it was fun enough. Not too easy and not too frustrating, just right. Being a DooM game, its action is pretty straightforward. Go there, kill that, open that door, kill some more enemies etc. The game also features some puzzles, none too difficult. I found one a bit frustrating, it involved a lift and some jumping over a fence of some sort. The puzzles seemed enjoyable to me in the end, a nice pause from the killing.

The main title (also, credits) theme is really great. I'm still listening to it and will surely listen to it occasionally from now on. Unfortunately, there's no other notable music in the game. That's a big minus for it. I'm pretty much a soundtrack maniac and a bit disappointed because of the lack of music in DooM 3.

The weapons available are really interesting and vary from the classic pistol to the DooM Exclusive BFG. The BFG is really easy to find towards the end of the game. More exactly, you pick it up from a dead boos. My favorite weapons are the Shotgun and Plasma Rifle. The shotgun is great for close quarter combat (you get those like, a lot) and the plasma rifle can explode enemy launched projectiles in mid-air while causing serious damage to most enemies making it my favorite long-range weapon.

I've complained a bit earlier about the game being too short. I spent around 8 hours before hitting the end. I really liked the game. I wish there were another 8 hours to play after the final boss (a Cyberdemon, which was really nicely modelled/drawn; something like a space Balrog (Tolkien)). I guess getting the expansion pack won't hurt at all. Maybe it will be just as fun. :)

The Good
Ahhh... Doom is back among us. After years of alpha leaks, mouth-watering promo videos and assorted demos the game that change the face of pc gaming returns once again to set the standard. And believe it or not, it didn't do a bad job at all!

The importance of Doom as a videogame landmark cannot be underestimated even by the most jaded old "grandpas" in the scene. Thus it made perfect sense for id to ride its golden pony once more as a way to promote their new graphic technology by way of a remake (or "reimagining" as Tim Burton would say) of the greatest game ever (sic.). Once again you are placed in the shoes of the ever present Space Marine (tm) who has to fight his way through a demon-infested colony in Mars fighting for your life through many dark corridors and hellish landscapes and once again the technological boundaries have been pushed further.

If the original Doom became famous for being the first game to really bring home the sci-fi tension and suspense of the Alien films, Doom 3 will be remembered as the game that took that feeling and made it actual physical reality (in your monitor of course). There's no overstating just how well the graphics in the game work. I saw most of the demos and was determined not to let them impress me by the time I got my hands on the game but as soon as I found myself exploring the dark corners of the station I forgot all about the pixel-shading effects, motion blurring, specular shading, bump-mapping and stuff like that. Because id pulled me once again in their dark sci-fi world this time thanks to a level of graphic realism never before seen on a videogame. The living quality of the environments is simply amazing. Not only do you get the gritty feel of being on a dark space colony, but also you get the feel that the place is entirely "man-made" as it were due to the fact that very few places are made of "just" textured walls and instead feature all sorts of modeled pipes, panels, wires and moving gizmos. The detail poured in the level design is simply amazing and coupled with a superb photographic direction that maximizes the engine's ability to dramatically light scenes (complete with true 0-light darkness) and an amazing sound design filled with eerie sci-fi cues and sfx that take full advantage of surround setups, the end result is an experience like no other. I vividly recall hooking the computer to my 29" TV, shutting off the lights and cranking my stereo with 4 friends the night I first installed the game and blabbing nonstop about how cool everything was until we got to the infamous "mirror scare"... boy you could hear a pin drop after that let me tell you!

And that's before you start meeting the nice denizens of hell and make a trip there yourself. Fans of horror games will be happy to know despite the imposing brimstone and lava intro to hell, that the game has let go somewhat of it's heavy-metal band inspired inferno and now favors a more Clive Barkerish design, which means more brutally dismembered corpses, ritualistic stuff and trans-dimensional horrors a-la Lovecraft. By far Doom 3 will remain in my mind as one of the most impressive depictions of hell ever, if only for the visceral effect of it all. As for the monsters themselves they are all reworkings of the same baddies featured in the original games only with the same Barker-inspired updates. For the most part all of the creatures gained with the changes (particularly the Imp, who looks far more menacing, and has gained an Alien-like agility) although the revenant looks far too "plastic-made" for me. One of the most impressive creatures in the game however, is an original creation whose name escapes me, but which looks like a cross between a moth and human baby... yes, a cute human baby. One of the most deliciously shocking and disturbing moments in the game is when you first hear the crying moans of a baby approach you and you later see his chubby face and bright eyes coming for you... with no legs...!

Anyway, moving from the visual design of things for a bit we have the gameplay. Let's see, where you betting on it being a straight up, simpleminded shooter? Well good for you! Here's your cookie boy.

Yes Doom 3 is a straight-to-the-point action-heavy visceral shooter just like the original games, but that's not to say that it hasn't picked up a few new tricks itself. While the gameplay revolves around shooting baddies and collecting keys the game plays as a unified whole (without any "levels") and has you following a distinct set of objectives and even asks you to make a choice a couple of times along the way. The game also uses darkness and poor visibility to augment it's emotional punch and believe me that it works. Few things bring such a primal fear to your heart as not knowing what's out there in the darkness, and the limitation of not being able to hold both the flashlight and a weapon at the same time while irritating at first makes sense in the context of the game and adds to the thrill factor.

Doom 3 also makes heavy use of scripted events to increase the survival-horrorish feel. Interaction with the gameworld is, as expected, paper-thin but it's there. I remember cringing in fear of another "Quake" when word got out that Carmack had decided to do away with the "use" key yet the end result is far more classy and innovative than I could have imagined. Basically you interact with computers, panels, etc. with your mouse, the way it works so charmingly simple and well-thought that it's a wonder nobody thought of it earlier. You just walk up to the screen and once you enter the correct "use" distance you loose control of your mouselook abilities in favor of controlling a pointer on the screen. You interact with the thing as in your basic flash-made web interfaces and once you got what you wanted you just walk away! Simply beautiful! I can't wait for other games to start including interfaces like this.

All of these nice features also help the game from a storytelling point of view. Sure, all of us well-adjusted individuals understand that we really don't need a story to enjoy Doom, but there's no denying that it enhances the experience quite a bit. So yeah boys and girls, there's a story here! Yeah! Can you believe it? It's no masterpiece of literary fiction as you might have guessed, but it's still pretty entertaining fare and par for the course as far as fps storytelling goes. id also made the right choice of forgetting about some of it's design mantras and adopted some ideas from previous games like Half-Life and System Shock. With a long-intro in which you can chat with npcs, explore your surroundings before all hell (literally) breaks loose, a few surviving npcs and scripted events that move the plot along as well as clues and logs which you can save in your PDA and which expand the gameworld and help build the atmosphere as in SysShock.

The Bad
There is no point arguing the finer technical flaws in the game because they take us to a level of anal retentiveness reserved only for film CG talks. The truth of the matter is that the game is technically brilliant and a landmark of 3d gaming. Trolls everywhere in forums make it a point to pit D3's engine against HL2's Source engine but while it's true that the later can push more polys (Doom 3's models when closely inspected are revealed as quite blocky) the overall shading quality in D3 far surpasses any shortcomings in its modeling. If there is one real shortcoming with the engine is that it really requires a monster system to play with all its bells and whistles. I can play Riddick: EFBB and HL2 at max detail and 1024x768 but D3 still chugs like a bastard if I attempt to go over 800x600. Physics are adequate for the game, without the overkill that is playing through Half-Life 2 and with just enough to satisfy the average player (with such hallmarks as bodies falling down and realistically piling over each other). The AI has taken some flak from some people and I agree that it's pretty predictable at times, but quite frankly I can understand hellbound monsters acting like you know... uhm... monsters, instead of spec-ops operatives!

If there is one flaw in the game that really annoyed me was the heavy-handed use of scripted events. It seems id really loved those moments in Half-Life, System Shock and similar fps where you walk down a corridor and as soon as you step on the correct place a monster falls down from the ceiling instead of just being there. However instead of carefully planning each encounter and set-piece as in those games, they filled the maps with dozens of cheap scares which work in the same manner: walk down a corridor, hear a door opening behind you and wham! See a monster emerging from a secret room! Ha-haaa, got me there id! The first 100 times at least, then it just becomes boring not to mention incredibly stupid as you start wondering just what the hell was the monster doing waiting for you to pass by while stuck in a closet? There are some nice, original scares but they get downplayed by the cheap-o "Peekaboo!!" scares that literally haunt the entire game, and that's a real shame.

As a minor bitching note, I could have used the double-barreled shotgun and the Mars surface areas are extremely well done (those are actual rocks I tell you!!) it's a shame they are so short.

Oh and yeah, it doesn't exactly "evolve" the genre into any direction and if you want multiplayer action D3's flimsy 4-player deathmatch mode doesn't exactly cut the mustard. D3 is, for what it's worth, a singleplayer game.

The Bottom Line
Intellectual bitching aside (duuuh!! It's just a shooter, there's no character development and you just kill things!), techie-geek bitching aside (duuuh!! I already saw stencil shadows on "X" and engine "Y" gives better framerates with comparable looks!) there's no denying that Doom 3 is one hell of an interesting game.

Yes, when you look at it closely it's a game that takes incredible technology and adds to it some already explored (and better realized, really) design ideas to try to rejuvenate its stagnant gameplay, but does that matter if the end result is one of the most intense and thrilling experiences in recent memory? We all knew Doom's shortcomings even before we played it, and the fact that even after that it manages to be a fun experience to play is proof positive that it's not even close to being a bad game.

If you have the computer and nerves to play it (I myself avoided playing the game for more than 30-40 minutes straight due to the intensity of it all) you just have to give Doom 3 a try. It's not the second coming or anything, but it's one hell of a good ride and really, that's everything Doom has always been about.

The Good
I already realize that I have gotten to Doom 3 a lot later than most others. Doom 3 is not a game that you just simply “miss” on the store shelves like a fresh remake of Defender. No, I decided to forgo purchasing a copy of the game for the same reasons I forgo all games: I’m simply not interested in a game OR I do not have the green pieces of colored paper to fork over for such said game. In this case, both the former and latter reason amply persuaded me to invest my money in a different game. The time arose, however, when a good friend of mine got the game and decided not to open it. I supposed this was my time to strike, and that night I got home with a borrowed copy of Doom 3 in my hands, and soon after, on my hard drive.

In all honesty, Doom 3 originally surprised me because…well…it didn’t suck. All honest expectations for this game braced me for a game rife with terrible dialogue and an experience on par with Turok: Evolution. However as far as games go, Doom 3 descended me into a world that was, by all means, creepy, atmospheric, and impeccably well done.

As I got off the transport to my unfortunate post on Mars I noticed tons of things right from the get go. First of all, this game is well-done and has amazing production values. It’s polished, and it’s got all the workings for a great atmosphere. Doom 3 has a way of making you feel like you’re in an abandoned Mars compound. Not just looking at it through a monitor, really being there. The sterilized architecture of the buildings, the empty silence of the halls, and the destruction of the facility make it feel all too real. The lighting also plays a major part in this. The swaying of a single ceiling light as you traverse down a ransacked and blood-soaked hallway does so much more to add to the gruesome scene. Wall shadows and dynamic lighting aren’t just thrown away as a simple mechanics; they’re actually part of the game’s design. With every step you take in the game it feels like a real step you take in real life. The tension and fear is in the air, and at many times, it feels like you are too.

The characters also mimic the attention paid to the atmosphere. The NPC’s, while they’re there, have a certain…vividness…about them. This vividness is not so much a lively feeling but a real feeling. The looks on their faces mimic the tension of the air. The NPC’s have an emotional tension about them. All around everyone is worried about all the strange things going on at the facility. People look and feel on the edge, just more evidence of a carefully constructed universe set up by developers. It also adds to the atmosphere. Not only does the design of the place feel creepy, but everyone is so paranoid and worried. Besides this, NPC’s have a lot to say: they don’t actually repeat themselves over and over again like a typical game. Many have tons of lines of dialogue regarding everything.

And as I traveled on to my assignment, it seemed like not only the atmosphere and characters were there, but an entire universe as well. Besides the odd events around the compound, I found the denizens of Mars not only talking about the strange events, but about others as well. A TV in the lounge with the news station on revealed more about the Doom 3 universe and things going on outside of Mars. I could use computers and terminals to find out cargo deliveries and meeting schedules. I found out that I could pick up others PDA’s, which I admit is one of the cleverest things the game does. While it also revealed many secrets like door and locker combos, one my favorite things to do were to read their emails. Like everything else, it revealed a well-constructed universe. I discovered the innocent civilians of Mars chit-chatting over new members, parties, quiz nights, bad workers and bosses, and just work related stuff like power blow-outs or deliveries. It’s something that convinced me I was not the only major part of universe, and there are other things going on around me, and that this station was fully functional before I arrived.

The level design also must be noted here. Shockingly, the Mars facility had real-life architecture. Unlike most games which have one-way facilities that seem like they are made solely for the player to traverse, Doom 3 has carefully laid-out levels that make it seem realistic and man-made. It has hallways laid-out that make it look that if it weren’t in complete ruins, it would be a real building. Many times you will return to places through a different route, more evidence to this point. It has functional and practical architecture and infrastructure that, again makes it seem like a universe is present with me in the game.

Doom 3, as it promised, is a dazzling display of technology and lighting. The graphics on the game are absolutely amazing. Simply put, this game is beautiful. Every level has tons of detail poured into it. Just one room has so many tiny details that it’s mind-boggling. Every room has pipes and gadgets jutting in and out of the walls. Every monitor has something displayed on it. It’s a splash of detail that games these days really fail to put in. Just one room has a lot, and yet they do this throughout the entire game which is great. The graphics are also nice and crisp, and go with the lighting well. The lighting is one of the greatest parts of the game. It is so much better to feel the tension of the scene by watching a slithering spider shadow crawl up the wall. Even on my poor computer I was able to enjoy high-quality graphics, which in my opinion, enhanced the game greatly. Darkness never looked this beautiful.

And so I descend into the depths of Mars city to go on my first assignment. People are even more on edge here, with people telling of horror stories and voices in the dark. All around you can tell the paranoia in people’s voices. And as I venture on, the more twisted the game becomes. I myself even become pretty nervous as I stray farther from people and go deeper into the underground. By this point, I am shocked by the game. It had exceeded all of my expectations and made me feel so immersed into the game. I felt like I was part of this game and its universe, and was feeling just as terrified and paranoid of the areas around me as the civilians who occupied it. And of course, the moment comes where all Hell breaks loose. I scramble myself to fend off the ravenous demons from beyond as I rush to get back to Mars City. Armed with just a pistol, I can hear my friends screaming over the radio. Everything is in utter chaos, and I am totally freaked about this game. The game had so far lived up to its glorifying hype. As I dodge demons and fend off the undead, I finally make it to the elevator. I take it back up to Mars City, anxious for more and prepared for what this game had to show me….

The Bad
…However what Doom 3 has to offer is easily finished within the first half hour of the game.

The farther you play, the farther Doom 3 descends into a repetitive, mindless shooter with absolutely nothing to offer. The farther you go, the father this game reveals that it is rife with stagnant gameplay and boring mechanics. When I entered the sixth level and discovered it looked exactly like the past 3 levels I’ve played, it become obvious that Doom 3 is filled with more problems than a guest on the Jerry Springer Show. But dear God where to start?

I think its important to lay down some of the basics before we go on, which is why I will first bring up the game play. Doom 3 is an FPS, and nothing more. It is one of the most mind-numbing games I have ever played, starting with its repetitive, tedious, and unforgiving game play. It is the stereotypical FPS recipe: lots and lots of shooting people, combined with key finding, and mixed with few boring and easy puzzles. That’s it. Doom 3 stays the same all throughout the game, and in my opinion, never once throws you a fresh or interesting challenge, save for one large platforming level in the middle of the game, which is nice to see a new challenge but is also very frustrating.

Doom 3 is a game that relies solely on run n’ gun shooting, but what’s even worse is that it fails to even do this. The enemies appear so often and are so overused that it comes to the point where they appear every 5 seconds. It seems that the game can’t let you go down a single hallway without expecting you to encounter another enemy. Enemies are used almost entirely too much that you pray that you are allowed to go just a bit more before having to stop to exterminate another. In the end, the only thing these enemies serve to do is impede progress and slow you down from finishing this dreadful game.

Another major part of this is how terribly linear and similar the levels are. A staggering fraction of the 27 levels within the game look exactly the same, save for a few like the Hell levels. Doom 3 requires you to pass through four levels of Alpha Labs (a total of four hours), all which look completely the same, to try and meet up with Bravo Sqaud, only to have them die in a cutscene. Then they change the objectives around, and require you to go through even more divisions of the compound just to achieve some minute objective. Nothing about any of the environments makes them unique. The horrid monster AI makes it worse, as enemies use the same Robert E. Lee suicide cavalry rush that failed them so many years ago! Doom 3 is so remarkably boring to play that it is painful to go on after about an hour. I could go on with this, but to do so any more would be redundant. To put it simply, Doom 3 is the epitome of generic, bad FPS’s, and utterly fails to be anywhere near as appealing as other games.

Doom 3 also manages to fail to scare me after the point where every enemy jumps out of the walls surprisingly. Remember in the original, when you were supposedly walking through an abandoned room and then all of a sudden…ZOOP…a bunch of enemies pop out of the walls and blow you to bits? Yea, they brought it back. And while it brings a nice bit of nostalgia to the game, it is absolutely annoying because they don’t stop using it- EVER. About 25 levels into the game they still use the mechanic to try and surprise you. You walk into an empty room. You go over to a switch to open the door. A bunch of demons pop out of a secret compartment and attack you for the 400th time that’s happened. Scary! As well, when you’re in the middle of the game, a problem arises in that more times than not the game makes you more bored than scared. After 4 hours of overused mechanics and a shoddy plot, you are too bored to even be remotely paranoid.

And even so, the idea of being scared in a Doom game is utterly impossible. The reason for this is that they give you a fine assortment of weapons to defend yourself. Picture this, you are running down a hallway being chased by demons and your afraid for your life. Then all of a sudden, you realize you have a shotgun, mini-gun, rocket launcher, and laser cannon. You turn around and blast the demon down to a fleshy pulp. Don’t be surprised that this occurs A LOT in Doom 3. May of the times when I became genuinely worried was when my weapons could not handle it, like in the Hell levels when I had no weapons, or when there were too many enemies on the screen. Id, if you want me to be afraid, then please dear God don’t give me weapons to defend myself with! That defeats the whole feeling of being helpless! It starts off scary because all you have is a pistol, but a few levels in I’m packing more heat than a Republican at an NRA meeting.

Doom 3 even manages to destroy what it had set up in the beginning of the game. The character development set up by it disappears because after the infestation of demons, there really aren’t anymore characters to develop anyway. Sergeant Kelly, the person who gives you commands in the game, is utterly devoid of a personality or emotion. Other individuals in the game are few and far between, and are usually there only to lend a temporary helping hand like unlocking a door, furthering the story, or giving you a useful item like a key or weapon. Even the main character seems empty or devoid of life. No other NPC in the game is capable or surviving as long as you are. To put it simply, the excellent characters I saw at the beginning of the game, pretty much ceased to exist. Besides that, the superb atmosphere and universe it sets up is still there, but it eventually wears off. Like most things in video games, the game will remain tense and suspenseful for a day or two. After that, boredom overshadows your curiosity to find out events from the game, and the level design ends up becoming a trifling factor in the game. Exploration is practically impossible because of all the enemies impeding your way, but is also discouraged by the game’s mechanics. Exploring an area and finding a new weapons or health or secret is almost always coupled by a trap being set off and a million monsters coming to get you.

I did not try multiplayer, over fear that it would be another crappy counter-strike type of game, but I have heard that it is useless since really no one plays. Good choice guys, I wouldn’t play it either! As it turns out Id wanted to focus on single-player, which is ironic, since it turns out to be another crappy shooter anyway. The game becomes a horrible experience, one you will never want to play ever again. And even if you wanted to replay the main one player game, it would be pretty much the same. In other words, Doom 3 lacks any bit of replay value. The levels remain completely linear, having very few detours thrown into the mix. Puzzles are easily solved, and the game play is repetitive. No new experience can be gotten from even attempting to replay this sorry shell of a game.

The Bottom Line
Doom 3 really brought me up and then really let me down. At first, Doom 3 showcased me with amazing production values (probably best I’ve ever seen), amazing graphics, and a dark atmosphere. But it just goes to show you, that at its core a game must have good gameplay or at least a decent story to keep you entertained, because without it the rest of those contributing factors just don’t make a difference.

Doom 3 claimed that it wanted to be a modern remake of the original game. Well, I guess it succeeded perfectly. Doom 3 is filled with the same mindless, repetitive gameplay that was the trademark of the first. It is further evidence that games are not justified to be fun with just production values alone. Doom 3 even scores extra for setting up a great atmosphere and universe in the beginning, then completely destroying it with horrible mechanics and shoddy gameplay. By the end of the game, I wanted to get the game done so much I pretty much put the game on God mode with no clipping and went through. Even then was not even much fun.

Look up “generic FPS” in the dictionary and you will see Doom 3’s picture. In all honesty, I have found Doom 3 to be one of the worst, most repetitive, boring games of all time. Please do yourself a favor and do not play this game. I hope this review serves as a warning to those planning on getting it. I had to go through the torture of playing this game, but hopefully this review will save many more. Heed my warning and don’t buy Doom 3. This primitive game deserves to be locked up in a warehouse, piled below boxes and boxes, sitting right next to the Arc of the Covenant. Do not invite this hellish game into your house. It will only end in tears.